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Bautista’s Bat Flip is a Symbol for Toronto Sports (Podcast)

Oct 14, 2015
·
34 minutes

Nearly every American sports network that i looked at called Bautista's bat flip 'disrespectful' or 'unsportsmanlike'. That's simply because they don't understand.-Click here to Download the Podcast or go to the bottom of this page-
They haven't felt the years of frustration with 'good but not good enough' Blue Jays teams. They haven't been through the decade-long playoff droughts experienced by all Toronto sports franchises in the 90's and 2000's. They never had to feel the disheartening third period collapse in a game 7 at the hands of the Bruins. They never had to witness the missed last second shot from the Raptors in the final game of a series...twice...from their franchise players Lowry and Carter. They never had the embarrassment of being named the worst sports franchise (Leafs)...in back to back years. And they especially haven't seen their soccer teams miss the post-season every year for their first decade of existence (that was changed about 3 hours ago thanks to Giovinco).
In 2007, the Toronto Maple Leafs had won the last game of their season, meaning that a New Jersey Devils win over the New York Islanders would send the Leafs to the post season for the first time in 3 years. The Devils were down 2-0 with 5 minutes left, when all of a sudden john madden scored...twice...with the second goal coming with 0.1 seconds left. Toronto had hope, it was destiny that they were to go back to the playoffs, all the momentum was on the Devils side. Until...Wade Dubielewicz sent a pokecheck to the last Devils shooter in the Shooutout, and the Leafs automatically failed to qualify for the playoffs. What I'm getting at here is that Toronto Sports fans are taught to think that 'we can't have nice things'. Even when there is hope for Toronto teams, things seem to go awry which always results in more pain for the fans of the Six.
What might be the saddest part is that for Toronto, making the post-season is deemed as a 'successful' season. Think about that. The expectation of this city has been to 'finish in the top half of the league'. Imagine if cities like Boston, Chicago, or New York had those same expectations.
With one swing of the bat, things seemed to have changed. Bautista throwing the bat felt like he was throwing away the 'curse' of Toronto sports. It felt like years of frustration was taken out on that bat flip, and it was a symbol that this team is differen